THE BEAT

Random notes

In the next two weeks The Beat’s coverage will include previews (two parts – one week for “producers” and one for “presenters”) of the 2012-2013 performing arts season.

There are a few interesting things on tap.

We’ve already been told there’s a super-cool but super-secret development in the works for Opera Columbus.

Director of Artistic and Educational Programming Peggy Kriha Dye said she would have to kill us if she told (not really), but she did say she hoped she’d be able to share within the next month.

Meantime, check the next couple weeks for more on the opera’s upcoming season.

In other Opera Columbus news, auditions are scheduled for performers to be cast in season shows, including both “main stage” shows – Opera Atelier presenting The Magic Flute in April and the New York

Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ presentation of H.M.S Pinafore next June, as well as the new Opera Cabaret (we said more in our season preview!) and educational programs.

The auditions will be held Sept. 9 and 23 at the Ohio Theatre. Visit operacolumbus.org/auditions.html for details.

In other exciting 2012-13 season developments about which we don’t know as much as we’d like ... ProMusica Chamber Orchestra will announce its new Music Director this season.

Founder Timothy Russell will celebrate his final season on the podium, with new maestro David Danzmayr also scheduled to lead a pair of shows before coming on board full-time for the 2013-2014 season.

In other news from the podium, Friend of The Beat and Columbus Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson has added principal conductor duties at the Tulsa Ballet to his already substantial resume, which includes music director posts with the Westerville and Springfield (Ohio) symphonies as well.

Is the plural of podium podia?

If you were among the 10,000 or so folks who attended the recent Mumford & Sons show at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, you enjoyed the debut of the LC “festival” set-up.

Sources indicate that the configuration, which featured a specially-constructed stage in the venue’s back parking lot, was a rousing success, with great sight lines and food and beer trucks to sate the non-musical portions of people’s appetites.